"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Taciturn in Seven Ancient Languages

Obituary of Martin Litchfield West in The Times (July 24, 2015):

No great conversationalist, he was once described as "taciturn in seven ancient languages". Sometimes he would go silent as he paused for thought in the middle of a discussion, until his companion was forced to ask, "Are you going to reply Martin or is that it?" "I haven't decided yet," he would respond.

A similar phrase, "silent in seven languages," was applied to the classical philologist Immanuel Bekker (1785-1871).